L.A. River Restoration Planning Gets Hands On

Alex Dann, a 7-year-old boy from Tarzana, a suburban neighborhood of Los Angeles, spent a recent Saturday coming up with ideas for one of the city's most exciting planning projects -- the Los Angeles River. Working on a model which featured an assortment of "Lego pieces, parts of toys and objects such as toothpaste caps,...Alex moved a wood-block figurine resembling a high-rise apartment house away from the edge of the river. He was asked if he had ever seen the real Los Angeles River and what it was like."

"Yeah, I've seen it. It's a sewer," he replied as his mother, Holly Dann, blanched.

"Well, it is," Alex said, standing his ground."

"The three-dimensional scene Alex was working on is a representation of one of five points along a 32-mile stretch of river for which officials have launched long-range plans to beautify the waterway and make it appear more natural."

"There are professionally drawn maps and computer generated renderings of what the future river could resemble. But it took transportation planner James Rojas to give it a three dimensional look.

Rojas, 47, works for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He is also co-owner of Gallery 727 in a storefront at 727 S. Spring St., where "Five Models Afloat" will end its monthlong run today with a final showing from noon to 4 p.m."

"About 700 people have visited the exhibit, including design consultants working on the river plan and city officials. One of them was Councilman Ed Reyes, who heads the river master-planning committee.

"When I first heard about it, I thought it was unconventional, kind of strange. But when I got there, I saw people doing some creative things," he said. "What struck me was how elaborate the little block and figurine structures were. People were really thinking about what they were doing."

After watching awhile, Reyes tried some hands-on planning of his own."